Lawyers against village courts, threaten strike

Khammam: The setting up of village courts under the Grama Nyalaya Act, which came into effect in October 2009, is being opposed by the lawyers’ fraternity.

In Sattupalli, advocates have gone on a three-day strike  in all courts. Sattupalli Bar Association general secretary Shaik Bujji Saheb said that they would take up a serious agitation in future if the government did not stop the setting up of village courts.

The Grama Nyalaya Act aims at making justice easily accessible to the rural population and in dealing with the backlog of cases.

The Act also makes the judicial process participatory and decentralised because it allows the appointment of local social activists and lawyers as mediators and in cases of reconciliation. To make the judiciary responsive to the local socio-economic situation, it prescribes representation from scheduled castes and scheduled tribes.

The village courts will be run by first class judicial magistrates and all those criminal cases where the maximum punishment is below two years of jail can be tried by these village courts. They can try both civil and criminal matters and judicial officers of these courts will be appointed by the  state government in consultation with the High Court.

But, lawyers say that people would be at a loss because of these courts. “The role of middlemen and political leaders may increase with the village courts and the people in rural areas will face more problems,” the lawyers say.

There are thousands of cases pending in various courts in Telangana and a substantial number of these pertain to community areas, water and other common resources such as pastoral land.

Pinnam Janaki Rama Rao senior advocate in Sattupalli said, “There is no infrastructure in the present courts, so how will judges and staff to the village be provided in village courts. The village court concept is an age-old one and it was designed when the transport system was not developed.  But now, the transport system is fully developed and the people do not face hardships in reaching courts within one hour in an area below a 60 km radius.”

Kancharla Venkateswara Rao, senior advocate in Sattupalli, said, “There is no use of the village courts and the image and prestige of judiciary system will be hit because of it.”